Rick Gates wants to be able to move about more freely, and in a court filing Thursday, asked the judge to take into consideration his ongoing cooperation with Special Counsel Robert Mueller.
CNN:
The former Donald Trump campaign aide cited the "numerous" times he's visited the special counsel's office in recent months as he asked a federal judge in Washington to relax the court-ordered restrictions he's under as he awaits sentencing.
Gates implored the judge to remove his GPS monitoring bracelet, free him from a nightly curfew and allow him to travel more freely around Virginia and Washington. His recent help to investigators shows he won't flee, the filing says, adding that Mueller's office did not take issue with the request.
He has built a "record of continuing cooperation" with prosecutors since he pleaded guilty to charges of conspiracy and lying to investigators in February, his attorney Tom Green wrote in the filing.
A major part of Gates' cooperation so far included him testifying at trial in August against his longtime boss and former Trump campaign chairman Paul Manafort ...
It’s unclear if U.S. District Court Judge Amy Berman Jackson will approve the proposal, even with Mueller’s sign off. The Washington-based judge rejected an earlier Mueller-approved request to let Gates stop wearing the GPS device in March, saying at the time that his “change of heart is quite recent” after initially pleading not guilty to a series of charges including money laundering, bank fraud and conspiracy.
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The new arrangement Green proposes includes weekly check-ins with court officials from his home, via his home telephone landline. He said that change “will surely not increase the risk of flight or make it less likely that Mr. Gates will appear in Court when required to do so.
“On a much more personal note, removing the GPS monitor will contribute to the process of healing in the Gates household which is on-going,” Green added.
CNN:
In recent weeks, Gates was implicated in a New York Times story describing how the Trump campaign considered a proposal from an Israeli consulting group to manipulate voters through social media.
Additionally, Mueller's team gained another cooperator whose past work intersected with Gates and Manafort: lobbyist Sam Patten, who admitted to illegally securing Trump inauguration tickets for a Russian connected to Manafort and to the same military intelligence unit that allegedly hacked Democrats and for a powerful pro-Russia Ukrainian who was close to Manafort.
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Gates served as Trump's deputy campaign chairman under Manafort. After Manafort left the Trump campaign in August 2016, Gates stayed on, then played a key role on the inauguration team.
Manafort pleaded guilty to conspiracy and witness tampering one month ago, following his conviction by a jury for various financial crimes unrelated to the campaign. Since then, he and his lawyers have met with Mueller's prosecutors at least eight times, according to CNN's reporting. Manafort is currently jailed and does not have sentencing dates set yet.
Gates' sentencing date has not yet been scheduled either.
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"Mr. Gates' conduct in pleading guilty and fulfilling the terms of his cooperation agreement are part of the process he willingly embarked on to effect a course change in his life," the court filing said Thursday. "He is prepared to receive the court's sentence on whatever day it is imposed."
Rick Gates continues to help Mueller investigation, lawyer says (CNN)
Mueller cooperator Gates asks judge to remove GPS tracker, curfew (Politico)